Friday, March 11, 2016

Past POIs - Hellbrunn Palace [Salzburg, Austria]

During our trip to Salzburg, we visited Hellbrunn Palace (Schloss Hellbrunn in German) which is known for its trick fountains and in general, a nice park and palace grounds.

Built between 1613 and 1615 by Markus Sittikus von Hohenems, Prince-Archbishop of Salzburg. The original palace was just the three yellow buildings that you see, everything else (the palace grounds, the trick fountain area) were all built later.

One of the trick fountain sights

The trick fountains are what draws most people here and when you come, you will understand why. For a small fee, you get a roughly 40 minute tour of the trick fountains and you will walk through the entire section and understand what trick fountains actually means. This archbishop created areas which would delight guests and when they aren't paying attention, splash some water at them from secret areas where it isn't obvious that you, as a guest, would get wet.

Pretty neat show with miniatures that was controlled with water

I thought that the trick fountains was a neat little tour, definitely not something that you see every day and worth a visit for it if you are in the area. After your tour, you exit to the palace grounds and you are free to walk around and enjoy the palace as much as you like. If I remember correctly, you can actually walk the palace grounds for free, but you have to pay for the trick fountain tour.

Sound of Music pavilion

Located in Hellbrunn Palace is the Sound of Music Pavilion which looks like a covered pegoda. This is not the original location, it was actually moved from Leopoldskron Palace which is another Sound of Music sight that you can visit if you like while in Salzburg. It is interesting to note that, The Sound of Music which is well known in the west is not actually known here except for the tour guides that know about it. At the Sound of Music sights, I noticed that it tended to be the ladies who were lining up and being very excited to reenact certain scenes from the movies while the guys would be holding the purses and taking pictures or video as needed.

Hellbrunn Palace is easily accessible by local transit (much like a lot of other attractions). You take Line 25 to Hellbrunn station and it is a short walk from there.